Most lamb doesn't stay in state

Meat's renewed popularity comes after years of decline

Meat's renewed popularity comes after years of decline

December 14, 2007|By Sarah Ottney, sottney@aberdeennews.com

Demand for lamb meat is on the rise thanks to checkoff efforts, three recent studies have shown. A checkoff is a small percentage of each animal sale, collected from producers, which the American Lamb Board uses for advertising and promotion programs to increase demand and expand the market for lamb. The lamb board is a national promotion, research and information organization whose purpose is to strengthen the position of lamb and lamb products in domestic and foreign markets. Most lamb produced in South Dakota doesn't actually stay in this area, said Lynn Perry, president of the South Dakota Sheep Growers Association - it's shipped to big cities, mainly outside this region. That's because lamb is most heavily promoted in areas with large ethnic populations and with larger grocery chains and fancy restaurants that aren't found in rural areas, he said. Perry, who chairs lamb promotion efforts in South Dakota along with his wife, said he would like to see more promotion in area grocery stores, especially around holidays like Easter. The stores focus mainly on ham, he said. Lamb has gotten a good response in recent years at giveaways at the South Dakota State Fair and South Dakota State University basketball games, Perry said. Three studies: The lamb board funded three studies in 2007: a return on investment study, an analysis of lamb demand in the United States and an analysis of retail sales data, according to a news release. The first study, conducted annually by Texas A&M for the lamb board, measures whether the return on the lamb checkoff is greater than the investment. According to that study, the lamb board's efforts have nearly doubled the return per dollar spent on promotion. The lamb board spent about $2.2 million on promotion of the approximately $2.4 million produced by checkoffs in 2006, said Rae Maestas, program manager for the lamb board. The study also showed that between 2002 and 2006 - the time period that the lamb checkoff has been promoting American lamb - 7.6 additional pounds of lamb was consumed per dollar spent. "That is extremely good," Maestas said. The second study - of analysis of lamb demand in the U.S. - revealed that lamb demand has increased 5.7 percent in the last 10 years after many years of decline. The study, which was prepared by Julie Stepanek Shiflett of Juniper Economic Consulting Inc., and Wayne Purcell, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech, also demonstrated that there exists great potential for further demand increases. In the third study, Illinois-based FreshLook Marketing found that the overall demand for lamb sold at retail is on the rise, with lamb outperforming all other proteins, as well as total meat, during the 52-week period ending Dec. 31, 2006. Lamb dollar sales increased by 6.3 percent, and pound sales increased 5.7 percent on an average price per-pound increase of 0.6 percent to $4.99, the study found. Credit given: Checkoff promotion efforts are the driving force behind the increase in demand, Perry said. "If you don't promote it out there to people, they forget about it," he said. "Just like any other business, you have to promote it. No one else is going to do it."